Despite the constraints on the use of cash payments, Italy still remains significantly behind the euro area average in terms of transactions with electronic payment instruments. AND according to Abi, the Italian Banking Association, the use of cash finds a reason in anonymity, behind which shadow economy phenomena can be hidden. This was revealed by the director general of ABI, Giovanni Sabatini, during a hearing before the parliamentary commission for the tax register.
On the one hand, the data published by the Bank of Italy in its latest Annual Report highlight an overall growing trend in the use of retail payment instruments other than cash, Sabatini recalled: the number of payments made with bank and postal instruments in fact increased by 3,9% in 2011 (against 1,4% in 2010). Among the instruments alternative to cash, the use of payment cards prevails, whose relative weight on total payments, in 2011, was equal to 41 per cent, in line with the EU average figure.
However, Italy remains in a position still far behind the euro area average in terms of transactions with electronic payment instruments: in Italy an average of 68 transactions are carried out per capita per year with these instruments than an average of the euro area which stands at 182. "The high use of cash in our country finds its main reason in the guarantee of anonymity and, therefore, in variables connected with the underground economy"Sabatini noted. Added to this are undoubtedly factors of a cultural nature linked to the lack of knowledge and distrust of part of the population towards electronic payment instruments.
The director general of ABI was keen to draw attention to the fact that the Italian system for combating the circulation of cash and combating money laundering and terrorist financing is far from being classifiable - as some press reports have feared – a “big brother”.
“On the side of the banking and financial intermediary, it is important to remember that the reporting to the Ministry of Economy and Finance of the infringement of the rules on the circulation of cash between private individuals and the reporting of suspicious transactions for money laundering purposes and terrorist financing to the FIU do not in any way constitute a "crime report", but – underlined Sabatini – they submit to the attention of the Ministry of the Economy or the FIU evaluation elements which will then be explored by the respective Authorities. In particular, the activity of contrasting the phenomenon of money laundering, carried out through the reporting of suspicious transactions, does not represent an investigative activity but a sort of information link between the perpetrator of the crime and the authorities in charge of repression".
